Party Memories

There is nothing like a bit of nostalgia and KathiJo's prompt on Lucky Snapping in 2013 is all about Party Memories.  I'm not a big 'party' person, I really prefer smaller groups, so when it came to organising something for my 50th I wanted it to be something I would really enjoy.  In the end  I had two parties, here is a little bit about what we did:

Party #1 was held at the Dalton Pottery where we painted various pots and had them fired at the pottery.  I was joined by my husband, sons and their partners, sister-in-law and mother-in-law.

Party #2 was celebrated at the Seafood Restaurant in St Andrews with my Mum, Great Aunt and my sister, the food was fabulous and the setting is stunning as you are in a glass box sitting out over the sea.

Nostalgic Valentine

This week the Lucky Snapping theme returns to nostalgia and Kathi has asked us to consider 'Affairs of the Heart'.

So, we are back at my Week 3 challenge and I am using 'nostalgia' as the theme, it doesn't have to be a long lost memory, it may just be from last year...or last week.

 My theme this month is going to be 'Affairs of the Heart.'

Feel free to take the prompt wherever it suits..

• maybe it will be a vintage Valentine's card in a shop or a little gift you have saved in a drawer somewhere.
• or a special little thing you do in your house that might become a traditon for your children in their future...
• it might be just your news this week which fits the theme and you can put it down for posterity..  

To start the week we must all have a little story to share about Valentine's Cards or Valentine's Day..or a romantic gesture which was a great success .. or a huge failure even!

 This vintage valentine card is framed and hangs in my hall.  It came from a 'scrapbook' which belonged to my husband's grandmother. She was a great hoarder and I am eternally grateful for some of the beautiful and interesting things that she kept.

Her story is an interesting one, her name was Elizabeth and  she was engaged to a man who went out to South Africa to farm, but in the end she did not want to leave Scotland and broke off her engagement.  It's not clear whether this Valentine card was from her sweetheart over the seas or another!

She later married a man nearly 40 years older than her and moved to the farm and house that we now live in.  They had a son and two daughters, one of whom died falling off a gate.  When her husband died, her eldest son inherited in his early twenties, whether it was that he was not a good business man or just inherited too young, he got into a lot of debt and Elizabeth took out a mortgage to buy the house and farm from her son.  By this time Elizabeth had had another child (out of wedlock) then met the man who would be my husband's grandfather.  He had already been married and had a large family in Lancashire,  he married Elizabeth and she had another three children including my late father-in-law.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Valentine card and hearing a little of Elizabeth's story.

Snowy Nostalgia for Lucky Snapping in 2013

Kathi is hosting Lucky Snapping this week and has chosen the theme of Nostalgia.  Here is what she says:  

"what it is that takes you back, or what will take you back when you look at this week's post in the future.....

• it doesn't have to be a long lost memory, it may just be from last year;
• maybe it will be a vintage postcard or a retro styled cup in a shop..
• or a special little thing you do in your house that might become a traditon for your children in their future...
• it might be just your news this week which fits the theme and you can put it down for posterity..

To make it easy we will use the term 'nostalgia' for my prompts..though as I said it may just be something happening now which people will enjoy reading or seeing in the future..

 

The term describes a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations......In common, less clinical usage, nostalgia sometimes includes a general interest in past eras and their personalities and events, especially the "good old days," such as a sudden image, or remembrance of something from one's childhood. (thanks to Wikipaedia as ever).."

For January there is the additional theme of 'New Beginnings'  I'm not sure that I have met that one, although I suppose you could say that featuring toddlers at the beginning of their lives is a kind of new beginning!  It will have to do, because it was the snow we had on Sunday and the photo I took with my little compact camera (the DSLR arrived back from repair today-hurrah!) that reminded me of these older photos of my sons around the same age.  I hope Andrew will forgive me for putting him in a pink snowsuit, I recall that I got it second hand  and they both wore it to keep warm around the farm.